This I Believe

When I started High School, I was in a new place with no friends and no idea as to what I was going to do. I had no motivation and my grades were terrible. I did not care. I just wanted to get through high school as fast as possible, so I decided to try out a sport. Not knowing what was in store for me; I followed in my father’s footsteps and decided that I would wrestle. I had seen a couple matches growing up, but did not understand the sport at all. I had no idea what it would take to be able to go out one the mat and compete. The biggest shock to me in that first year was the amount of work I had to put in to see results. Every day was spent lifting weights, running, and practicing. With every rep of the bar and every shot taken in practice, I was seeing improvement, and not just improvement in the mat room. My attitude started to change as I began to gain self confidence. My teammates helped to motivate me, even though it wasn’t always positive motivation, I took what they said to heart. I knew the stuff that they said was true, even though some of it hurt. I used their words as motivation for me to change. I hated to do homework, I was like every other kid in high school, but I realized that it was like wrestling. With every extra algebra problem worked out and every page read for history, I started to see the grades improve. Wrestling is a sport that you hate while you are participating, but you miss it as soon as it’s over. Luckily, the lessons it teaches you live on with you forever. Now in college, I know that the only way to succeed is to spend that extra time and effort. I know that it might take another late night, and that it will not be fun, but the results will show what I want. To get to where I am now took a lot of hard work. I know the time and effort that I put in, and I am proud of it. To look ahead at the future, I know that the only way to continue to succeed past college is through hard work. I know that hard work is the key to unlocking any door I want to go through.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.